A 'big, fat hug?' What to expect from high-stakes Trump meeting in China

WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump might not be getting a “big, fat, hug” from China’s notoriously straitlaced leader, President Xi Jinping, while in China for a two-day, pomp-filled visit and talks on Iran.

A firm handshake and a ceremonial red carpet is more like it. And lots of arm-wringing over U.S. military support for Taiwan.

“He’s a great gentleman. I find him to be an amazing man,” Trump said of the authoritarian leader on May 11 while talking with reporters.

Members of a Chinese honor guard and students lined a red carpet – one side holding small Chinese flags, the other American flags – as China’s Vice President Han Zheng greeted Trump, who was the last U.S. president to visit China in 2017, after he landed in Beijing on May 13 shortly before 8 p.m. local time.

Eric Trump, his wife Lara Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and tech executive Elon Musk, who is part of a delegation of more than a dozen billionaire CEOs, are all accompanying Trump for the three-day visit.

Trump's aggressive tariff agenda, the ongoing U.S. war in Iran, the future of tech and U.S. military support for Taiwan are issues expected to take center stage at Trump's face-to-face meeting with Xi.

China is also America’s top economic rival and both U.S. political parties have taken aggressive steps to wean the United States off Chinese-made products since the coronavirus pandemics. For the better part of last year, Trump and Xi were engaged in an ugly trade war.

“You can respect somebody as a leader but also be their competitor and in some instances be their adversary,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, one of the negotiators of the U.S.-China trade agreement during Trump’s first administration.

'Piece of garbage'? Iran tops agenda for Trump

The war in Iran and the drama around the Strait of Hormuz will be the major items on the agenda. 

Trump has said the ceasefire is on “massive life support” and called Iran’s latest proposal to end the conflict a “piece of garbage.” 

China is Iran’s largest trading partner, and Iran has allowed a number of Chinese commercial ships to pass through its blockade of the Strait. China has tried to stay neutral on Iran, despite Beijing being close economic partners with Tehran. China has pitched in on Pakistan’s efforts to mediate and recently called for a comprehensive ceasefire.

Trump has spoken to Xi multiple times about Chinese support for Iran and Russia, and those conversations will continue, said a U.S. official who previewed the trip for reporters.

The president, in an April 15 post on Truth Social, said the Chinese leader was pleased with his efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

"I am doing it for them, also - And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran. President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks," Trump said.

Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook: business deals on the agenda for the trip

Trump’s roots as a businessman will also be front and center.

Trump and Xi are also expected to announce aircraft and agricultural purchasing agreements and potentially joint boards of trade and investments. Apple’s Tim Cook, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, NVIDIA's Jensen Huang, and Tesla's Musk are among more than a dozen CEOs who were invited to join Trump, according to the White House’s list.

Trump has also said he plans to raise the detentions of Chinese pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and businessman Jimmy Lai, the former publisher of the independent, Hong Kong-based newspaper Apple Daily.

“People would like him out, and I’d like to see him get out, too,” Trump said of Lai on May 11. “So, I’ll bring him up again.”

Xi expected to discuss Taiwan

Taiwan getting missiles and other weapons shipped from the United States is top of mind for China.

Taiwan’s legislature last week approved spending $25 billion on arms and other defensive equipment after a protracted battle. The United States has approved, but not shipped, $11 billion worth of the weapons. Trump suggested this week that he’s open to blocking future sales.

“I’m going to have that discussion with President Xi. President Xi would like us not to,” Trump said on May 11. “That’s one of the many things that I’ll be talking to him about.” 

Alexander Gray, who was Asia director, and later, chief of staff, on the National Security Council in Trump’s first administration, said he doesn’t believe there’s even a small possibility of the president changing U.S. policy toward Taiwan. 

Rubio said last week that the United States has not changed its position, Gray pointed out.

“So I have no reason to think that anything would change this time, just as it hasn't changed over the last 10 years of Trump's time in public life," Gray said.

Broadly speaking, the Chinese government wants the United States to back away from Biden-era pledges to support Taiwan in the event of a military conflict and adhere to the "one-China" policy. Taiwan views itself as independent, but China seeks to reunite with the democratically governed territory. American intelligence previously said Xi instructed his military to be ready to conduct an invasion as soon as 2027.

Trump said in August 2025 that Xi told him he would not invade Taiwan during his White House term. The intelligence community further assessed in March that China does not currently plan to invade, Reuters reported, and wants to control the island without using force.

In the Oval Office ahead of his trip, Trump suggested that even the prospect of a military conflict that could pull in the United States and regional allies like Japan was reason enough to maintain positive relations with Beijing.

“I have a very good relationship with President Xi, because I don’t want that to happen,” Trump said.

Competition, not confrontation

Back in Washington, concerns are growing that the amount of military assets and weapons launched in the Iran war has massively set America back in the event of a future military conflict with China – the only adversary Pentagon officials have held up as able to compete with the United States.

“My concern is all the assets that are used in Iran, the missiles, the forward deployed units, diplomatic capital are absent now from the Indo-Pacific,” Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters May 12. “The Chinese are quite aware of that.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, said on "Face the Nation" two days prior that Pentagon briefings on the expenditures of munitions in the Iran war had left him shocked – and worried.

“That means the American people are less safe, whether it’s a conflict in the Western Pacific with China or somewhere else in the world," Kelly said.

In attacking Iran, the U.S. military may have expended more than half of its inventory of weapons considered key to defending against China’s missile capabilities, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Roughly 2,500 Marines stationed in Japan were deployed to the war months ago. Half of the military’s deployed aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships are engaged in the Iran war, after the USS George H.W. Bush replaced the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Middle East.

“We have patiently accumulated over time these capabilities,” Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of state under former President Joe Biden, said of military weapons and personnel moved out of Asia.

“It has been vacated. It is all back in the Middle East. Once you lose it, it's very hard to get it back,” he told reporters at a May 8 briefing.

Joey Garrison contributed to this report.